…the same evening this beauty arrived on it’s maiden voyage!

SAN DIEGO – A colossal yacht was seen cruising in San Diego Bay Wednesday evening.

The 330-foot mega-yacht Attessa 4 stopped by San Diego during its maiden voyage.

The owner, industrialist Dennis Washington, had the boat custom built to his exact specifications. Washington’s net worth is about $4 billion, according to Forbes, and the Attessa 4 has everything a discerning billionaire might want.

The ship boasts a helicopter, a speed boat, pool, hot tub, movie theater, a fully operating day spa and much more.

Forbes estimated the price tag for the nautical masterpiece at $250 million. Large as it is, the Atessa 4 doesn’t make the list of the world’s top 10 mega-yachts, all of which are more than 400 feet long.

Here’s some interesting information about the owner of the yacht.

The fun little side note to us arriving the same time the Atessa 4 arrived is knowing that a friend of ours worked on this Yacht while it was docked in British Columbia. We listened with interest on his account of his time on this yacht and it was fun to put two and two together to realize that this was the very same yacht we heard about a year before…

I was so happy to have an “off” day on Wednesday. Life is really full around here. Just the chance to hang around in my robe as long as I want in the morning is a nice respite for me. What do you like to do on your “off” days?

Marg and Judy made the cutest place settings for us with our personal apron patterns to lead us to our seats. Sixty jelly beans in a vintage 1952 jar with a photo of Marg and Judy were at our setting also. Here are the party guests…

Guest of honor and one of our hostesses, Judy.

 Judy with Bev.

Kathy and Lovella

Julie and Anneliese

Guest of honor Marg with me

Time for some gifts…why not it is a birthday party after all. We had to take a break from gifts to order our food.

Lovella decked me out in a fascinator she purchased for me…

The hot pools were calling out to us and if you’d like to see photos from the pools you’ll need to visit Lovella, Judy, Marg, Anneliese or Kathy’s blogs. My camera stayed under cover during this time of our afternoon.

After the pools it was time for cake! Marg made a special gluten free dessert for our dear Julie to enjoy while we had cake.

Of course we sang the Happy Birthday song in harmony for our birthday girls. They got to sing, too, since they were sharing this birthday party.

There is still a mystery afoot as to the maker of this beautiful cake. Time will reveal the truth…

I don’t know when the last time was that I had 2 desserts in one seating but hey…2 birthday girls=2 desserts…right? I knew you’d see it my way.

As the sun started setting it was time to leave the beautiful Harrison Hot Springs Resort and head back to our homes. We give permission and encourage Judy and Marg to keep celebrating this milestone birthday the rest of the year. Happy Birthday girls! I’m so happy that God brought you into my life!

The Roy Rogers Show (“Happy Trails”) 

Some trails are happy ones,
Others are blue.
It’s the way you ride the trail that counts,
Here’s a happy one for you.

Happy trails to you,
Until we meet again.
Happy trails to you,
Keep smilin’ until then.

Who cares about the clouds when we’re together?
Just sing a song, and bring the sunny weather.

Happy trails to you,
Til we meet again.

I grew up watching this great show on T.V. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were lovely people. Monday I spent the day with 7 of the Mennonite Girls to celebrate Judy and Marg’s birthdays. It was a wonderful time together. I’ll be sharing more photos later of our time together. Until we meet again Girls!

Here’s what the website of the Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas had to say about their event.

“Here it is! The tradition is alive and well in San Diego this coming January 26, 27, 28 and 29 2012 as the Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas host the Santa Reunion XVIII / San Diego 2012! “

Now you know…

I’m linking up with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday with my real bearded Santa mosaic!

I’ll be away from my computer all day tomorrow as I’m traveling to Canada to celebrate a milestone birthday for 2 dear friends.  I’ll be in a bathing suit for part of the time and I hope no photos of me in all my glory make it onto the world wide web…time will tell. I’ll catch up on visiting later in the week. Blessings!

I was so happy to see this Pelican.

This Heron was fun to see, too. A Blue Heron in a spot I don’t usually see them.

These were not the birds I was excited to see. But there they were all in a line begging to be photographed. They were some of the fattest pigeons I’ve seen in a while.

We are home safe and sound. It’s always good to come home. We enjoyed being in the bright sunshine for a few days but “there’s no place like home”.

After Dear left for his meetings of the day I got my walking shoes on and headed out to the Harbor. I walked east first and then I turned around and walked west. I thought of you Sara! More walk photos to follow.

Later in the morning Tim and Letty picked me up at the hotel and we met my sister Vera at The Mission Soma for brunch.

Willow! The rosemary potatoes were really good and we all enjoyed our breakfast choices at your favorite breakfast spot in San Diego!

I’m totally skipping our experience on the Midway for now and going straight to finally meeting up with Dear for a few hours before his next business obligations.

It was good to be together with some of my family and get caught up on what’s going on in our lives.

See that drink…it did have a flashing light in it. It was the signature drink at the Lighthouse Restaurant. After the Lighthouse we had some dinner and shared a dessert at Island Prime C Level restaurant.

Tomorrow I’ll be out in the daylight. I’m hoping for an early morning walk along the harbor. It’s been so long since I’ve been on a proper walk. Sara is inspiring me with all her walks. I have no excuses since I’m in San Diego with the sun shining. Tomorrow I’m meeting some family members at one of Willow’s favorite breakfast spots here in San Diego. I’ll share photos after the fact.

Hoping to see and hear the sights and sounds that come with the Pacific Ocean. That shouldn’t be a problem since we are staying here. My sister Lana flies so much with Alaska Airlines that they let her nominate someone to get automatic MVP status. Bless her heart, she nominated me. When I went to check in I had been upgraded to First Class! Woohoo.  It has already been such a blessing to have this status in having 2 free bag allowance especially for Katie and my trip to North Carolina when we had 7 bags to check. Katie’s military dependent status gives her 5 free bags, but I digress, back to San Diego.  The weather reports say that it will be sunny and 70ish.

On Thursday my brother and his wife are driving down to San Diego to meet us for the day and dinner. Dear has obligations of course with his company but he’ll also get free hours here and there and is free for sure for dinner on Thursday.

Time will tell what you will see from me and our trip. Now I better get packing…

It was so good to get out and about today and run all the errands I couldn’t run last week because of our snowy icy roads. It was sunny and dry, too.  Hope your day went well.